Random Access Memories

I drove 250 miles back from Alabama yesterday listening to the much hyped Random Access Memories album by Daft Punk. It’s not my usual style of music, but I had said that in front a friend and he sent me a copy of the disc, so I really had no choice but to listen to it. It is part Ray Lynch’s Deep Breakfast, a bit Ziggy Stardust, and predominately, somehow, 70s future disco funk. A couple of the songs, Give Life Back to Music, Contact, and, especially, Giorgio by Moroder, are extraordinarily fun to drive to. At one point I had the Mercedes well over a 100 traveling in a group of cars who must have all been listening to similarly driving beats. In a market that seems to be made up of nothing but generic teenagers with voices as incredible as they are soulless, crooning about things they don’t understand, to an army of fake social media followers, Random Access Memories was actually quite refreshing. And while I can’t say that I loved the album, I appreciated it for being successfully different and still easily enjoyable.

Entry for May 9, 2013

While trying to get Sebastian ready for school this morning I noted he was singing Christmas songs which quickly led to him asking if he could write a letter to Santa. I explained it's a bit early for that, but he persisted. Eventually I relented, partially because it wasn't worth fighting over and partially because I was curious to see what he would write. So after about ten minutes of writing at the desk in his room, he emerged with a sealed letter, complete with a hand-drawn stamp. I assured him I would mail it and opened it during his morning shower. It said the following:

Dear Santa,

When is your birthday and what do you want?

Love,

Sebastian

I'm kinda at a loss as to what to do. I think its nice that he wants to get Santa a present, but I just don't know how to explain to him that all Santa wants is some peace and quiet and a bottle of anejo rum.

Entry for May 5, 2013

This morning Sebastian finally started to understand how compounding advantages is tied to adaptation in regards to evolution. In doing so he had loads of question about how certain things like our eyes evolved. Excitedly, we hurried to YouTube where I remember seeing an excellent video, narrated by David Attenborough, explaining the evolution of the eye as an example of how things slowly change. I was proud that he was making this leap and that I had the resources to help him to further grasp the concept. Except, our internet from Charter Communications was down, again. No problem, fired up the phone on Verizon 4G, only to find an error message saying, “Youtube video not available on mobile device." Wait, the tablet! Nope, still incompatible. Netflix? Hulu? Not there. Reboot everything. Call Charter. Give up on hold. Finally, I attempted to draw pictures and tried to explain it using a book that was way over his head, but he lost interest and asked if he could go do a puzzle instead. So here I am, finally back online, having missed an incredible opportunity to capitalize on a momentary spark of clarity because the evolution of our technology is somewhere in-between Homo sapiens sapiens and a primate at the zoo hurling his own shit at things.